Some conventional automated slide stainers, such as those produced by Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., and sold under the trademark Ventana, require proprietary barcodes to automate the process of staining tissue samples. For example, Ventana™ systems generate a label, comprising a one-dimensional barcode, which is physically placed on a slide containing a tissue sample. In this manner, the staining system is able to identify and manage the slide during automated staining. The Ventana™ barcode encodes a number which is only meaningful to Ventana™ systems.
Typically, prior to staining and the application of the Ventana™ barcode label, a first barcode label has already been placed on the slide. This first barcode label is usually associated with the source of the tissue sample (e.g., a patient). It may be a Laboratory Information System (LIS) barcode, generated by a histology or other laboratory and placed on the slide to maintain an association of the slide with its source for tracking purposes. LIS barcodes are generally two-dimensional or matrix barcodes (e.g., a Quick Response (QR) code).
In practice, at least in part due to limited space on the slide, the Ventana™ barcode label is physically placed over the LIS barcode label, thereby obscuring the LIS barcode label. Once the LIS barcode is obscured, it is unable to be read and tracked by systems which must process the slide following application of the Ventana™ barcode label (e.g., following the Ventana™ staining process). For instance, after a tissue sample on a slide has been stained, the slide is often digitized by a scanning system.
Ventana™ maintains tight confidentiality as to the meaning of the number embedded in its proprietary barcode. Thus, in practice, if a histology laboratory desires to use a digital pathology scanning system other than a Ventana™ scanning system, it must peel the Ventana™ barcode label off of the slide and/or re-label the slide in order to restore the ability to track the slide using the LIS barcode. In some cases, the information must be manually written on the slide. In either case, such a situation introduces workflow inefficiencies and opportunities for errors to occur.